Today my worst nightmare happened. We lost my love, my best friend, my heart, Bradford. He passed away in our bed, holding my hand, just like he wanted. I don’t think there is a person in this world that would disagree that we lost him far before his time. He had so much more to give in this life and was robbed of his full potential. But for the amount of time he did have with us, he lived more, loved more, and accomplished more than most do in 100 years. Brad affected the lives of everyone around him. Real connection was his top priority and I don’t think he fully realized how many people he truly reached - through his passion, drive, and search for deeper meaning.

Brad was the light of my life and always pushed me to be the best version of myself. He challenged me and questioned me. But most of all, he loved me. Fiercely. And Unequivocally. Our love was loud and obvious for the world to see. Our love was fearless.

Brad, the idea of living a life without you is more than unbearable. It’s impossible. You were my always. My forever. Already my life feels so quiet without you. I don’t know how to go on without you, how to be my best self without you by my side, but I will try. Because that’s what you wanted and that’s what you deserve. And I will figure out how to honor your life, every single day of mine. And I know I am not alone in that.

Love, I will miss everything about you. Every single day. I am so proud of the life you lived and the man you were - not just in the face of this terrible diagnosis - but every day I knew you.

You are my hero and no one lived their life more courageously than you. Sweet dreams my love - I love you more than the sun and the moon.

We wanted to provide a quick update. Last Thursday after finding a blood clot in his lungs, Brad's doctors found significant progression of the disease. The news was difficult for everyone. Brad declined rapidly over the weekend and his family has gathered in Detroit over the last week or so. During that time, Brad & Dana have been visited by immediate family, cousins, aunts & uncles, and close friends. Brad is in hospice care and surrounded by his favorite music, stories and poems. He is as comfortable as possible and spending as much time as he can with everyone. Unfortunately we cannot accept or respond to the calls, visits and texts at this time, so let this update be our way of sending our love back to you. We will continue to update each of you as best we can throughout this coming weekend. Much love and continue to live courageously. -Jeremy Potter

It’s a new year and that means some new changes here at Defending Your Life. First of all, we’ll be switching up the tenses of these blog posts from third person to first person. Writing about yourself in the third person is really difficult and impersonal. Plus, it’s no surprise that I/we (meaning Brad and I) are writing all these posts, so moving forward, we are going to stop pretending to write about “them” and instead write about us. Mostly I (Dana) will be writing and updating the posts, but we’ll let you know when it’s Brad or Jeremy or some other third party writer.

Secondly, as we’ve mentioned in a couple of the podcast episodes (which I’m sure you all are completely up to date on, right?), we have added some additional sections to this site! Take a look around, but most noticeably, we’ve added some of the projects we are working on (Brad’s memoir project, my #ForcedJoyProject), more in depth details about Brad’s Complete Treatment, and a Community section to keep you all connected with what we are working on. You’ll also notice a couple new sections that we’ll be implementing moving forward (Profiles in Courage and Fundraising efforts by friends and family).

With the podcast, we closed out the year with over 50 episodes! We are currently adding an intro/outro to all the published episodes (or season 1, if you will) and hoping to get them up on iTunes soon for even easier listening capabilities.

And last but not least, we are officially on social media! What’s a blog/podcast/website without a social media presence?? This is a big way on how we can stay engaged with all of you (especially when we don’t have time to update the site), so do us a favor and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.